A Legal Services Research Centre report found AI tool usage among surveyed Victorian lawyers rose to 55%, up from 37% the previous year. Only 26% of AI-using lawyers in fee-charging practice reported that AI had led to reduced fees for clients, the centre said in a statement.
Among lawyers who use AI, 78% reported their use of AI for legal work had grown over the prior year. Age-based differences in AI adoption have largely disappeared for lawyers under 60, with more than half in every career-stage group within that range now using AI. Usage remained low for lawyers aged 60 and over, The Guardian reported.
Business-client lawyers were more likely to report lowering fees, at 34%, compared with 23% among those serving individual fee-paying clients. Dr Georgina Rychner, principal researcher and report author, told The Guardian that business and corporate clients, as repeat users of legal services with high legal capability and their own AI familiarity, were better placed to push for lower prices, a dynamic less visible in the community legal sector. Eighteen per cent of AI-using lawyers said the technology had allowed them to take on work that would previously have been uneconomical.
Among client-facing lawyers, 46% said clients were turning up with inaccurate or misleading AI-sourced information, and 41% had to correct AI-generated documents or correspondence clients had brought in. Just 10% of lawyers saw clients arrive with improved understanding of their legal issues as a result of AI use.
Client AI use added to workloads for 46% of lawyers in terms of time and effort, while 19% said it lightened their load. The burden from client AI use was particularly felt in community legal centres.
Dr Rychner told The Guardian that efficiency gains had fallen short of expectations, linking this partly to the previous year's finding that 89% of practitioners reported checking AI output for accuracy, a step that may have cancelled out time savings. The Victorian Legal Services Board and Commissioner said it would supplement its existing guidance by soon releasing practical resources designed to help lawyers and practices use AI safely, ethically and responsibly.
For most lawyers in fee-charging practice, AI use has not reduced what they charge clients. Lawyers working with individual clients rather than business clients are less likely to have passed on any AI-related cost savings in lower fees.
Official statements: Lsbc
Reporting: The Guardian
Written by Pick & Scroll News from the reporting and documents linked above.
